The Bootblack Stand: Letters To Plunkitt From Senator (Name Withheld) and Saylord Poinsett
The Bootblack Stand Dr. George Washington Plunkitt, our prize-winning political analyst, is celebrating the publication of his new book, which is now available at avant-garde bookstores throughout...
...George Washington Plunkitt, our prize-winning political analyst, is celebrating the publication of his new book, which is now available at avant-garde bookstores throughout New Jersey...
...You will now see that there has been a higher legal consideration operating among the judges in respect to making life easier for the criminals and the lawyers who live off their crimes...
...In fact, I have never written any papers...
...GWP Dear Mr...
...I am writing a term paper for one of my English professors...
...And there are thousands of people just like me in lands all around the world...
...You deserve the "D you will probably get in your course, and that as a reward for effort only...
...The point is that successful penalties are forbidden by the Constitution...
...Address all correspondence to The Bootblack Stand, c/o The Establishment, R.R...
...Nightly the Rt...
...Your colleague, J. William Ful-bright from the advanced state of Arkansas, has done as much and his sagacity boggles the mind...
...I understand very well that we can legislate morality, but I don't see where in our constitutional system we should punish people for their mistakes...
...Thereafter, when there is no penalty for the crime, the judges can bear down again and enforce all other constitutional guarantees in favor of the fellow who has been done in by the criminal...
...I am a straight "A" student...
...He can make no error, not in the eyes of those who love cats and read chicken entrails...
...Then, when the crime has actually ceased to be frequently committed, it will become evident, that the penalty is indeed an unusual one and the SC will be required to declare the penalty unconstitutional and instruct the lower federal courts to devise one or more penalties which will not in fact deter the committing of the crime...
...Thereafter we can have a situation where the application of the penalty becomes a familiar everyday affair...
...Plunkitt: Just yesterday I was lunching in the Senate dining room, rapping with one of my colleagues, a distinguished gentleman of the opposition, a Republican...
...If Congress fixes a penalty which actually causes people to refrain from committing the crime, then application of the penalty will become a most unusual occurrence, will it not...
...Plunkitt: I know you to be an expert on the Court and Constitutional Law...
...Not long ago I too would have taken issue with your declarations on the Blue Blade, but today - as Mars crosses the celestial vault just so - I am moved to reconsider...
...It was too much for me...
...We never seemed to settle anything...
...Well as I was saying this he made an unkind remark about the way I eat my soup (I use both hands...
...Although Dr...
...Now he is a resolute spokesman for surrounding America with a Great Wall somewhat on the order of that employed by the Ch'in dynasty of old China...
...This circular process conforms nicely to older notions of progress and newer ideas of the desirability of constant change, and so finds favor in the eyes of both conservative and liberal wings of the judiciary...
...So I tried to avoid politics and attempted to brighten up the conversation by saying that I thought Negroes were getting lighter...
...I use it all the time, and I will continue to use it regardless of the new stuff the ad people come out with...
...Years ago he was a roaring internationalist...
...Then I told him I just love the decor of the new Howard Johnsons...
...Sincerely, Senator (Name Withheld) Dear Senator: The pull of the planets...
...But they have not considered Orion and Sagittarius, Pluto and Saturn...
...Dear Mr...
...He exploded...
...You know it's so clean and then-pot pies are yummy...
...You see, all fate reposes in the peregrinations of the bodies of the firmament...
...Some have called this a tergiversation and a botch...
...I knew he had serious problems, but I never guessed he was a racist...
...Lamentably and unfortunately our session became quite hot...
...Trust to the stars...
...Plunkitt expects to earn ten million dollars from sales of his new book, he has agreed to continue to advise public figures through this column...
...Then in the early 1960s he rushed us along the road to Vietnam...
...Ful-bright watches this choreography of the universe and he acts accordingly...
...I have no doubt in my mind that had the stars, the galaxies, the solar systems, and even a few clouds been in different positions this Republican would have agreed with you - especially about Blue Blades...
...I have dealt extensively with the various aspects of our immorality with respect to the Soviet Union, The People's Republic of China, and North Vietnam...
...Well he likes Sheratons...
...that is, that punishment of any kind is not a deterrent to "crime...
...What makes people act that way...
...The conversation began to degenerate when I got onto what I suppose you could call my pet subject, the old Gillette Blue Blade...
...Plunkitt's book is about the importance of altruism in politics and it is titled What's in It for Me...
...By tightening up the requirements for arrest, trial, conviction, etc., the judges have given both tried and true criminals and would-be criminals assurance that they will get off scot free...
...Yours Very Faithfully, Saylord Pointsett Dear Master Point-sett...
...Usually we are not required to write papers...
...He would have smiled on your every illumination...
...nothing was resolved...
...It is an honors course...
...The issue is not whether all punishments are or are not cruel and unusual...
...This moves each category of penalties over into the class of unusual and so finally makes it perfectly clear to dunderheads like you that the judges have a clear, obvious, undeniable obligation to invalidate the penalty...
...My question is this: In light of the present Supreme Court ruling concerning capital punishment, can't we say that all punishment is bad...
...11, Box 360, Bloomington, Indiana 47401, Continental U.S.A...
...GWP...
Vol. 6 • February 1973 • No. 5
